Campaign Blog - Day 47

Elizabeth May

September 19, 2015

What on earth was that word Stephen Harper slipped in to the Globe debate last night? “Old stock Canadians”? It became a theme on the campaign trail today.

Knocking on doors, people asked me if I had heard it and what I thought it meant. The incredible thing is how Harper has evaded what should be significant anger over his insistence on appealing the niqab decision. Traditional Conservatives should be outraged that our outgoing Prime Minister is using public funds to ask the Supreme Court of Canada to allow an appeal. The ill-considered, politically motivated decision to challenge a woman’s right to wear a niqab to her citizenship ceremony is untenable because the citizenship act specifically says new Canadians can wear cultural costumes of their land of birth and does not give a Minister of Citizenship and Immigration the right to issue orders. This appeal has not a snow ball’s chance in hell.